ITA in the News

by Erin J. Stringfellow, Keith Humphreys, Mohammad S. Jalali April 22, 2021

Buprenorphine treatment is among the most effective options for people with opioid use disorder (OUD), but it remains underutilized. Increasing buprenorphine treatment receipt is one of the most reliable ways to reduce opioid overdose deaths. Currently, the treatment of OUD with buprenorphine in outpatient settings is restricted to clinicians receiving an “X-waiver” under the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000. To receive this waiver, qualified clinicians must attend waiver training sessions for eight hours; other eligible practitioners, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants, must attend an additional 16 hours of training. Clinicians must then submit a Notice of Intent to the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration before they can begin prescribing; in some states, non-medical doctors must also have a qualified supervising physician.

Amy Knudsen, PhD, Senior Scientist at the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment, led a team of researchers commissioned by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to estimate the benefits, burdens, and harms of colorectal cancer screening. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May 2021, helped inform the USPSTF recommendation to lower the starting age for colorectal cancer screening to age 45.

Jagpreet Chhatwal, Associate Director of the ITA talked with Voice of America regarding their AI-based COVID-19 Outbreak Tool that shows how fast COVID-19 is spreading in different U.S. counties. The Tool shows that several jurisdictions remain at risk of future outbreaks despite the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines. It leverages machine learning to predict how fast an outbreak could spread at the county level by estimating the doubling time of COVID-19 cases. The Tool considers reported COVID-19 cases and deaths, face mask mandates, social distancing policies, the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, changes in tests performed, and positive test rates.

The NFL has worked with authorities at all levels to keep Super Bowl LV safe for the host city of Tampa, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs. With a smaller stadium crowd and requirements for masks and social distancing in and around Raymond James Stadium, league and city … Read more

An article co-authored by members of the ITA, Columbia University, The Ohio State University, and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine was honored as the Editor’s Choice article for the February 2021 edition of Value in Health. Value in Health is the publication of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). The Editors … Read more

In February, Carrie Lubitz, MD, MPH, principal investigator at the ITA, attending surgeon in the Department of Surgery, and at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, was elected the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) president. An outstanding academic surgeon and health services researcher, Dr. Lubitz is the first Mass General faculty member to serve as … Read more

As hospitals and health systems continue the shift to telemedicine, new issues and risks with cybersecurity have arisen that will require ongoing work to preserve privacy and safe care delivery, Harvard Medical School researchers say. 

In a Dec. 16 article for the Journal of Informatics in Health and Medicine, Mohammad Jalali, PhD, IT professor at Harvard Medical School; Adam Landman, MD, CIO at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and William Gordon, MD, professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, highlighted security risks of video conferencing apps and the increase in ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations. 

As colleges and universities reopened in the fall of 2020, many emerged as hot spots of Covid-19 transmission. The narrative that has emerged to explain this centers on irresponsible, party-going 20-somethings who refuse to listen to reason.

Some schools have expelled students who held gatherings in their dorms. A few governors have called out these students as drivers of the epidemic. With no national Covid-19 control plan in sight, it may be politically expedient to blame youths for the nation’s woes.

Is controlling Covid-19 on college and university campuses really as simple as ending parties? Or are other forces at play?

Data analysis and simulation modeling point to the latter. Understanding the dynamics of campus coronavirus transmission can help schools be better prepared for the spring of 2021.

Peter Mueller, PhD, and Gian-Gabriel Garcia, PhD, received Lee B. Lusted Student Prizes given at the 42nd annual North American meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM).

Pari Pandharipande, MD, MPH, was one of 36 women honored with the Anne Klibanski Visiting Scholars Award by the MGH Center for Faculty Development. This award is presented to women faculty clinicians, educators, researchers, and women postdocs at MGH, who have shown exceptional promise as leaders in their field and whose careers would specifically benefit from speaking, mentoring, and networking opportunities at the national or international level. This award provides an opportunity to serve as “virtual” Visiting Professor to give Grand Rounds at a national or international institution, organized by the Center for Faculty Development. Moreover, a mentor at the host institution will be identified for the Scholar. The Scholar will also receive professional coaching on presentation and interview skills, as well as a virtual career development seminar series.